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If this country is to continue the institutions and philosophy of equality and freedom upon which it was established, it is clear that vast fortunes that continue to multiply at the expense and to the impoverishment of the American people must be checked. This great wealth must be redistributed on a basis that will allow our economic system to breathe. The only e¤ective means is taxation. —William T. Evjue was the founder of the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin, and the editor of The Progressive from 1929 to 1940. Look at America Governor Philip La Follette april 30, 1938 Look at America: We occupy 6 percent of the world’s area. We have about 7 percent of the world’s population. Under normal conditions we have consumed about onehalf of the world’s co¤ee, half of its tin, half of its rubber, a Wfth of its sugar, two-thirds of its silk, a third of its coal, nearly half of its pig iron, half of its copper and over twothirds of its crude oil. We operate over half of the world’s telephone and telegraph; we own over three quarters of the automobiles and a third of the world’s railroads; we produce nearly three-fourths of the oil, over half of the wheat and cotton, and the lead and coal of the world. We dug a hole in Kentucky in which to hide over $12 billion in gold, over half of the world’s monetary metal. We have two-thirds of the world’s banking resources, and it has been estimated that our people have a purchasing power greater than that of the 500 million people of Europe and considerably larger than that of the billion people who live in Asia. Yet, here we are at the end of ten years still in a depression, nearly one out of every four living o¤ some kind of relief. Half our people are back where they were in 1931, and the country is headed for conditions as bad or worse than 1933. A program of constructive action is not diªcult to think of or agree upon. Our great diªculty is getting a government that sees the problem and has the courage to act. I emphasized a government that will act because if anything is clear this is clear: The question of prosperity or hard times—of liberty or dictatorship—will be made by government. Here above all else is a problem we as individuals cannot solve. A farmer may be industrious, thrifty, and intelligent. But that farmer is helpless against an economic storm sweeping across the nation. An employer may follow the best methods, may be La Follette / Look at America 289 thrifty, prudent, and far-sighted, and yet he has no alternative but to close his plant when there are no longer orders to Wll. Millions of industrious and willing workers lose their jobs through no fault of their own. We cannot answer these questions as lone individuals. They can be solved only by acting together as an organized people. —Philip La Follette was governor of Wisconsin for six years in the 1930s. A New Economic Bill of Rights Harry Magdoff november 1990 Most of us have been sold a bill of goods on what ails the United States. We’ve been told that reforms for the sake of human needs are impractical, if not impossible. The deWcits in the federal budget and foreign trade are supposed to be twin evils that have crippled the economy. In light of these perceptions, accepted wisdom touts such remedies as greater competitiveness in industry, higher labor productivity, reduced consumption, cuts in welfare spending, and a tax system that favors the rich. In reality, however, the conventional diagnosis has the cart before the horse. The deWcits and related problems are symptoms, not causes, of our troubled economy. The disease is a long-lasting stagnation, one that we have been su¤ering from for more than two decades. Simply put, the economy has run out of steam and has sunk into a morass of stagnation. Lacking suªcient proWt opportunities in productive activities, money capital shifted to Wnancial sectors, producing a spiral of debt, speculation, and inXation of capital assets. Tinkering with the money supply, interest rates, and other devices favored by economic orthodoxy will not get us out of the mess we are in. Nor will attempts to reduce the budget and trade deWcits, even if successful, overcome stagnation and...

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